3D volume visualization is an accepted technique to display structures present in a scanned volume, e.g. from CT, MRI or US. This visualization technique needs a color and an opacity map as input. The opacity map defines the structure to be visualized and the color map defines the coloring of the structure. Manual definition of the color and opacity map is not straightforward. To work around this problem presets are defined for the color and opacity maps. However, a preset is defined for a volume with specific voxel values. The result of a preset becomes invalid when applied to a volume containing a structure with different voxel values.
In viewing applications 3D visualization techniques are used to view the content of the volume data. To create an appealing 3D visualization a color map and an opacity map are defined. However, it is not straightforward to create these maps. Often a user can choose from preset color and opacity maps instead of having to perform this laborious task.
The Philips ViewForum workstation offers the possibility to create 3D visualizations from a volume scan (CT or MR). The user may create 3D visualizations with help of the so-called surface shaded direct volume rendering algorithm. With this rendering technique it is possible to create realistic images from the volume scan. Dependent upon the values present in the color and opacity maps different structures, present in the volume scan, may be visualized.
On the Philips ViewForum workstation the user may choose from a wide range of defined presets for the color and opacity maps. These presets are created and tested on a limited number of volume scans and tuned to visualize certain structures.
Currently the presets are static. This means that the contents of the color and opacity map are passed directly to the rendering algorithm. This means that when a preset is developed on a certain volume scan to visualize a certain structure, it is not guaranteed that this presets results in comparable 3D visualizations when supplied to other volume scans.
Hence, an improved method, apparatus, and computer-readable medium would be advantageous, allowing for increased flexibility, cost-effectiveness, and visualization resolution.